Climate change is an unprecedented threat to people and global prosperity. It is likely to be the biggest threat to development, economies, security and health in the 21st Century.

Worsening droughts, storms, floods and sea level rise can exacerbate poverty and create more vulnerability in the form of child marriage and human trafficking. But a global transition to clean energy also presents huge opportunities to spur development and improve life for billions of people. By opening up the conversation to include the ‘human cost’, we are able to connect with new audiences, and forge partnerships that can help build more resilient and sustainable societies.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation plays a thought leadership role in the fight to curb climate change, build resilience to it and shift to sustainable energy. We do this by raising awareness through authoritative, on-the-ground reporting that highlights the human cost of the issue, journalism training and mentoring on climate and resilience, and participation in key global climate change, resilience and sustainability initiatives through partnerships with leading organisations.

Raising Awareness

Climate change and efforts to build resilience to its impacts remain under-reported issues. With our team of reporters on the ground, we shed light on how climate change is affecting the lives of people and communities around the globe, expose the hidden connections between the impact of climate change and problems such as child marriage and human trafficking, and take a solutions-oriented look at efforts to curb and adapt to the problem.

Reporting Climate & Resilience

The Foundation’s team of journalists produces in-depth news features and short documentaries on climate change and resilience issues. All our news reaches an estimated readership of 1 billion people a day, triggering local and international debates, and often leading to meaningful change on the ground.

Scaling know-how

Ahead of landmark summits on sustainable development and climate change, we partner with key organizations to train journalists from around the globe to better report on climate issues. In this way, we ensure that the conversation is accessible to as many people as possible around the world.

Journalism Training

In 2016, we partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to launch a capacity building programme aimed at improving coverage of resilience and urban development news in Africa and Asia, with a focus on the then upcoming UN Habitat III conference in Quito. Training courses were held in Thailand and Kenya for media professionals from across each continent, honing their reporting skills on these topics and helping them understand the importance of the 17 SDGs with focus on Goal 11, addressing sustainable cities and communities. The ten journalists with the best story pitches were flown to Quito, where over 60 stories were produced with mentoring from our journalism consultants.

Ahead of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Summit in New York, as well as COP21 in Paris, we partnered with the UN Foundation in 2015 to deliver training to over 500 journalists in 34 countries around the world. The intensive programme provided reporters with information, tools and strategies to understand the complex issues surrounding the UN global development goals. The overarching aim of the programme was to amplify the volume of the conversation, and train journalists, government and NGO leaders to avoid the jargon around sustainable development and craft real stories that people can fully understand and relate to.

Empowering Experts

Experts around the world are working to find sustainable solutions to the challenges presented by climate change. However, these efforts are often fragmented and take place in isolation from one another. If real progress is to be made, collective action and coordination must be enabled.

Dedicated Platforms

The Thomson Reuters Foundation is proud to partner with like-minded organisations to create innovative online platforms aimed at connecting and empowering experts in the field.

BRACED is helping people become more resilient to climate extremes in South and Southeast Asia and in the African Sahel and its neighbouring countries. To improve the integration of disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation methods into development approaches, BRACED seeks to influence policies and practices at the local, national and international level.

Zilient is the first of-its-kind platform for connecting resilience practitioners worldwide. Zilient aims to provide two primary services: to connect individuals and teams working across the global resilience field, and to elevate high-quality content on resilience. To achieve these goals, Zilient hosts a number of features, including user profile pages and a searchable member database, as well as a global event directory of upcoming conferences, convenings, collaborative opportunities, and workshops.

Our Partners

Strengthening the Rule of Law

Ensuring the rule of law is upheld is fundamental to mitigating the impact of climate change. Our TrustLaw programme connects leading environmental NGOs with top law firms providing crucial pro bono support.

Legal Research for Change

TrustLaw connects leading climate and resilience organisations with some of the world’s best lawyers. In addition to providing them with free legal assistance, these lawyers produce powerful and authoritative pro bono research, giving those on the frontlines effective tools to demand policy change and ensure the rule of law is used to fight climate change.

The Business Brief: Shaping a Catalytic Paris Agreement

As the global community prepared to meet for the landmark Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) in December 2015, We Mean Business – a coalition working with the world’s most influential businesses and investors – sought pro bono legal advice to amplify the voice of business leadership, catalyse bold climate action, and promote smart policy frameworks.

The resulting brief outlined specific recommendations for a climate agreement that would stimulate businesses and governments to work together towards an effective transition to a low carbon economy. The eight policy proposals were successfully included in the final Paris Agreement, turning it into a catalytic instrument to accelerate climate leadership and increase climate resilient investments.

Fighting Social Exclusion Through Housing Rights in Latin America (Report in Spanish)

Urban poverty is a major challenge affecting Latin America across borders, languages and constitutions. Social exclusion due to economic factors such as lack of adequate housing is an obstacle individuals living in slums grapple with every day.

This research focuses on the most recent laws and policies related to the right to adequate housing, forced evictions and ‘squatters’ rights’ in eleven jurisdictions in Latin America. The resulting study is a useful tool to identify housing best practices and shape a more progressive housing policy across the region.

A woman’s ability to own, inherit and control land and property is absolutely vital to her ability to access resources and participate in the economy.

This report looks at legal frameworks that affect women’s ability to access resources, and identifies legal and cultural barriers to women’s land rights in eight case study countries. It covers both statutory and customary law, with a particular focus on how these laws work in practice.